Norbert Rillieux: The New Orleans Genius Who Sweetened the World
Every time you put sugar in your coffee, you benefit from the work of a free man of color from New Orleans who solved one of the 19th century's most important engineering problems. Norbert Rillieux...
Tom Dempsey: The Saint Who Kicked the Impossible
On November 8, 1970, with two seconds left at Tulane Stadium, Saints kicker Tom Dempsey lined up for a 63-yard field goal. Nobody had ever made a kick from that distance. Dempsey was born without t...
Paul Morphy: New Orleans' Chess Genius Who Conquered the World
Paul Morphy taught himself chess by watching others play, dominated every opponent on the planet by 21, then quit the game entirely. Born in 1837 on Royal Street, he conquered Europe's best players...
Jean Lafitte: New Orleans' Original Gangster
Nobody pushed the boundaries quite like Jean Lafitte, a pirate, smuggler, and war hero who ran a criminal empire from the swamps and then helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans.The Pir...
Baroness Pontalba: The Woman Who Built Jackson Square
If you've ever stood in Jackson Square and admired the red brick buildings with intricate cast iron balconies, you were looking at the work of Micaela Almonester, the Baroness de Pontalba, who surv...
P.B.S. Pinchback: America's First Black Governor Was from New Orleans
In December 1872, P.B.S. Pinchback became the acting governor of Louisiana, making him the first person of African descent to serve as governor of a U.S. state. He held the office for 35 days.Born ...
Bernard de Marigny: The Gambler Who Built a Neighborhood
If you have ever rolled dice in a casino, walked down Frenchmen Street, or spent a night in the Marigny, you can thank a Creole aristocrat who inherited a fortune at 15 and spent the rest of his li...
Ernie K-Doe: The Emperor Who Made New Orleans His Kingdom
There are exactly two types of people in this world: those who know that Ernie K-Doe once declared himself the Emperor of the Universe, and those who haven't been paying attention. In a city full o...
New Orleans Second Line Parades
You hear it before you see it. A tuba line rumbling through the neighborhood, a snare drum cracking off something syncopated, and then the unmistakable sound of a trumpet cutting through a Sunday a...
New Orleans Snoball Season: Your Guide to Spring's Sweetest Tradition
You know that feeling when you walk outside in late March and the air hits your skin and it's not cold, not hot, just... right? The azaleas are going off, the oak trees have that new green coming i...
New Orleans Po-Boys: A Local's Guide
There is no sandwich on Earth that carries more civic pride than the New Orleans po-boy. Every neighborhood has a spot. Every local has an opinion. And if you bring up yours at a bar, be prepared t...
New Orleans Crawfish Season: A Local's Guide
You know New Orleans crawfish season has truly arrived when the smell of boiling spices starts drifting over backyard fences in every neighborhood from Mid-City to the West Bank. It's not a calenda...
Professor Longhair: The Soul of New Orleans Piano
There is a moment you hear if you spend enough time listening to New Orleans music. A piano line that feels like it is rolling and tumbling all at once, syncopated in a way that makes your body mov...
WWNO: New Orleans' Voice on the Dial
There's a particular kind of morning in New Orleans that only locals really know. You're stuck in traffic on I-10, the lake is doing that silver thing it does when the sun hits just right, and comi...
WTUL 91.5 FM: New Orleans Freeform Radio
If you have ever been driving through Uptown on a Tuesday night and caught something on the radio that sounded like a Cambodian surf rock band covering a Meters riff, you were probably tuned to 91....
Jean-Louis Dolliole: The Free Man Who Built New Orleans
Walk through the French Quarter or Treme on any given afternoon and you will pass homes that have stood for nearly two centuries. The stucco is cracked in places, the shutters have stories to tell,...
John James Audubon: The Artist Who Painted New Orleans Wild
If you have ever taken a lazy Sunday stroll through Audubon Park, dodging joggers and watching the oak trees do their ancient, sprawling thing, you have walked in the footsteps of one of America's ...
Kate Chopin: New Orleans Made Her a Writer
New Orleans has a way of cracking people open. You arrive thinking you know who you are, and then the city shows you all the parts of yourself you had been keeping under lock and key. For Kate Chop...
Lafcadio Hearn: The Outsider Who Understood New Orleans Best
Every now and then, somebody arrives in New Orleans from somewhere far away and falls so hard for this city that they end up understanding it better than people who were born here. Lafcadio Hearn w...
Brene Brown and Her New Orleans Family Roots
There is something about growing up in a city where strangers greet each other on the sidewalk, where your neighbor brings you a plate when they cook too much red beans, and where showing up for ea...
